Elements of BRT

This subsection focuses on site-specific examples for each BRT element. For a more general description, see Elements of BRT within the Planning Support Tool.

Running Ways

BRT running ways include operations in mixed traffic, median arterial busways, contra-flow freeway bus lanes, normal-flow freeway HOV lanes, and busways on separate rights of way and bus tunnels. These running way features are summarized by geographic region in Table 2.

There is considerable variation among BRT facilities from region to region. Independent busways dominate North American and Australian practice, while arterial median busways are used throughout South America.  Arterial street bus operations are found in two of the three European case studies.  Reserved freeway lanes for buses and carpools are found only in the United States.

Table 2: Types of Facility by Region

(1) Includes O-Bahn and bus tunnel as part of one busway  
(2) Optically Guided Bus
(3) Once system includes an electronically guided vehicle

While Brisbane’s SE busway and Pittsburgh’s West Busway have several tunnel sections, a bus “subway” with five on-line underground stations exists in Seattle.  A 1.2 mile subway is being constructed in downtown Boston that will have three underground stations.  This represents an important advance in BRT development, bringing a key running way feature of rail transit to bus operations, complete grade separation in a busy CBD to BRT.

Bus-only roads (busways) exist in Miami, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Runcorn, Sydney and Brisbane.  A busway on a rail right-of-way is under construction in Hartford.  

Curb bus lanes traditionally have been the main type of bus priority treatment both in North America and Europe, although they were not reported in the case studies. Despite their advantages in bringing buses curbside and their minimum impact on street traffic flow they are often avoided because of their uncertain availability and conflicts with deliveries. This is certainly the case in South America where arterial median busways predominate.

Several systems in the United States and Canada (Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Vancouver) operate largely in mixed traffic. In the case of Los Angeles, this is an interim operation, and after a demonstration on Wilshire Blvd., more bus-only lanes will be selectively incorporated in the future.

Running ways are generally radial, extending to or through the city center. However, Vancouver’s Broadway-Lougheed Line provides cross-town service and is anchored by the University of British Columbia on the west. Sydney’s northwest suburbs busway is a circumferential facility.

Bus lanes are typically 11 to 12 feet wide. Shoulders are provided along busways where space exists. At busway stations, roadways are typically widened to about 50 feet to allow for express bus or skip-stop passing.  Busway envelopes (widths) are about 30 to 50 feet between stations. At stations, the total envelope (4 travel lanes, plus station side platforms) can be as wide as 75 feet. For example:

• The Hartford-New Britain Busway will provide a 50-foot envelope at “staggered” or offset side platform stations.
• The South Miami-Dade Busway provides a 52-foot roadway at stations plus station platforms.
• Ottawa’s Transitways provides two 13-foot lanes plus 8-foot shoulders. There is a 75-foot envelope at stations.
• Curitiba’s arterial median busways have 23-foot roadways. The overall envelope – including stations and service roads is 72 to 85 feet wide.

Spacing 

Station spacing along freeways and busways ranges upward from about 2,200 feet along Boston’s Silver Line to several miles along the Adelaide O-Bahn and the El Monte Busway in Los Angeles. The South Miami-Dade Busway has a spacing of almost 2,900 feet, the Pittsburgh busways average 4,200 feet, the Brisbane busway averages 5,540 feet, the Ottawa Transitway system averages 6,900 feet, and LA’s El Monte Busway along Interstate 10 exceeds 21,000 feet between on-line stations, though there are end-to-end expresses.

BRT station spacing along arterial streets ranges upward from about 1,000 feet in Porto Alegre, 1,200 feet in Cleveland and 1,400 feet in Curitiba to over 4,000 feet along Vancouver’s “B” Lines and Los Angeles’ Metro Rapid service.

This spacing, ranging from approximately 1,000 feet in urban areas to 5,280 feet in suburban areas, is similar to LRT and Metro practice. (NYC Transit limited service has an average stop spacing of 2,000-2,500 feet.)

Locations 

Stations are placed curbside when buses operate in mixed traffic, as in Los Angeles and Vancouver. Stations are typically located on the outside of the roadway along arterial medians and busways. However the Bogotá system, a section of the Quito Trolebus, and Curitiba’s “direct” service have center island platforms with commensurate use of left-side doors on buses.

Passing Capabilities

Two-way busways widen from two to four lanes to enable express buses to pass vehicles making stops. In situations where stations are staggered on either side of intersections, busways typically widen to a total of three lanes. The median arterial busways in South American cities also provide passing lanes for buses; usually station platforms are offset to minimize the busway envelope, thereby resulting in lane changes (shifts) by buses. Bogotá’s median busway has continuous express (passing lanes). Cleveland will operate express buses on parallel streets, thereby obviating the need for passing lanes at median busway stations.

The Brisbane and Ottawa busways have barriers between opposing directions of travel at stations to prevent at-grade pedestrian crossings.  Pittsburgh has barriers as well as raised curbs with designated crosswalks. Miami merely designates desired crossing locations, as will the new Hartford-New Britain Busway.

Platform Length

Station platform length varies depending upon bus volumes and the lengths of the vehicles operated. Stations typically accommodate two to three buses, although busy stations may accommodate four to five vehicles. Boston’s Silver Line, for example, will have 220-foot long platforms that can simultaneously handle three 60-foot articulated buses. Where the service plan has more than one route serving a particular station, platform lengths will be longer. Because of the number of routes serving each station and the enormous passenger volumes it carries, Bogotá’s TransMilenio busway has platforms up to 500 feet long.

End of the line BRT stations, where many routes converge and diverge, including local buses, may have many additional bus docking positions.

Platform Height

Most new BRT stations have low platforms, since many will be served by low-floor buses. However, three systems in South America – Bogotá’s TransMilenio, Quito’s Trolebus, and Curitiba’s systems have high platforms to allow no-gap, level boarding and alighting of passengers from high floor vehicles. Guided vehicles such as the Civis vehicle used in Rouen and Las Vegas, or buses with at-grade access ramps that automatically drop down at stations, e.g., Quito and Curitiba, are required for floor-to-platform boarding and alighting.

Fare Collection

Bogotá, Curitiba and Quito have fare gates controlling access to “high” station platforms similar to those found on metro rail systems. The station fare collection mechanism function essentially like those for rail rapid transit lines, with access allowed for people paying exact cash fare in Curitiba and by smart card in Bogotá. Prepayment along with multi-door use of buses reduces dwell times, to as low as 20 seconds per stop in Curitiba and Bogotá for some high volume stations.

In Rouen, the barrier-free honor fare system, similar to that used in many European cities’ bus or LRT systems, facilitates multiple door boarding. In other cities with high BRT passenger volumes (e.g. Ottawa) the use of fare passes allows at least two-stream boarding through all doors. Las Vegas is the first BRT system in North America to utilize an honor-fare system featuring ticket vending machines at stations and on-board time and date validation enforced by roving inspectors. Most American LRT systems use honor fare systems including Hudson-Bergen LRT in New Jersey.

Station Design Features

Stations along the case study systems provide a broad spectrum of features and amenities, depending on location, climate, type of facility, and available space. Some are simple, attractive canopies as along Miami’s Busway or Los Angeles’ Metro Rapid Lines. Others, like those along Brisbane’s South East Busway provide distinct and architecturally distinguished designs, as well as a full range of pedestrian facilities and conveniences. The “high platform” stations in Bogotá, Curitiba and Quito contain extensive space for fare payment. Curitiba’s tube stations have become an internationally-recognized symbol. LACMTA’s Metro Rapid Bus, AC Transit’s San Pablo Blvd Rapid Bus and Las Vegas Max stations feature real-time bus arrival information.

Overhead pedestrian walks connect opposite sides of stations in Brisbane and Ottawa, as well as busy stations in Pittsburgh. In some situations, access to both platforms is provided from roadway crossings over the busway.

Body Style 

Vehicle body styles range from the standard (40-ft) bus to articulated (60-ft) buses, and in one case: Curitiba, bi-articulated buses. Some double-deck buses operate in Leeds, and Houston’s BRT service uses over-the-road intercity coaches and articulated buses with a suburban seating configuration. It is significant to note that almost every city cited in the U.S. and Canada, except Los Angeles and Vancouver, even a region as small as Eugene operate or will operate articulated vehicles in BRT service. Rouen, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Cleveland operate or plan to operate specialized BRT vehicles rather than conventional buses.

Propulsion

Standard diesel buses predominate; however, there is a trend in North America towards vehicles with “green” propulsion systems, such as CNG-fueled spark ignition engines, e.g., Los Angeles, and hybrid diesel-electric vehicles, e.g., Seattle, Eugene and Cleveland. Boston will operate dual-mode full performance diesel and electric trolley (Silver Line Phases II and III) diesel and already operates CNG buses (Phase I). The Iris Civis vehicle used in Rouen, France and in Las Vegas is a specialized diesel-electric vehicle with train-like features and optical guidance.  

Floor Height

An increasing number of systems operate 100% or partially low-floor (under 15 inches or 38 cm) vehicles to make passenger boarding and alighting easier. Buses in Bogotá, Curitiba, and Quito have platform high boarding and alighting. While these vehicles reduce passenger service times, their operation is limited to the BRT lines with high platform stations, and the vehicles cannot operate elsewhere. This dramatically reduces their operating flexibility.

Doors Sizes and Numbers 

The need for better door arrangements on buses used for BRT services is increasingly recognized. Existing door arrangements have been a major constraint to shortening dwell times on many North American bus systems. Many articulated buses used for BRT lines in North America (e.g., Ottawa, Los Angeles, Boston, Vancouver) have three double-stream doors. In Europe 100% low floor vehicles with three double and one single stream doors are not uncommon (e.g., Rouen). The double articulated buses used in Curitiba have five sets of doors, four double and one single stream. Doors are generally located on the right side for North American and French systems and on the left side for buses operating in Australia and Great Britain. Although a vehicle with doors on both sides has been developed by different manufacturers, e.g. Neoplan and New Flyer, neither of which has gone through Altoona testing nor are currently available for use. The New Flyer will only be available in 2006 at the earliest and the NABI in 2007. The “direct buses” in Curitiba, which operate along one-way arterials with center platform stations, have left side doors as do buses operating in Bogotá and in Leon in Mexico. Some of the buses operating in Sao Paulo have doors on both sides to better serve various platform arrangements.

Design Features 

The most successful BRT systems have vehicles used only for BRT services with unique identities. Bogotá, Curitiba and Los Angeles use red buses for their BRT services. Honolulu, Quito and Vancouver have distinctively striped buses. Rouen’s and Las Vegas’ Civis vehicles have modernistic rail-like styling and a futuristic appearance, and could serve as prototypes for future BRT vehicle designs. Las Vegas’ and Rouen’s Irisbus 100% low floor Civis vehicle buses have a 34-inch (86 cm) wide aisle, end to end, compared to typically 27-inch (69 cm) on the NYC Transit’s low floor buses.

Intelligent Transportation Systems

The applications of ITS cover:

• automatic vehicle location systems (AVL),
• passenger information systems (e.g. automated station announcements on vehicles, real time information at stations), and
• transit signal preference/priorities.

BRT systems having centralized AVL systems include Boston, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Brisbane, Sydney and Bogotá.

Systems with real-time passenger information systems include Boston, Las Vegas MAX, AC Transit Rapid Bus, Ottawa, Pittsburgh (some buses), Vancouver, Brisbane, Los Angeles’ Metro Rapid Bus, and Curitiba.

Systems having transit signal timing priorities or special bus phases include Cleveland, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Boston, Las Vegas, Oakland and Rouen. The Metro Rapid lines in Los Angeles, for example, can get up to 10 seconds of additional green time when buses arrive at a signalized intersection. However, at major crossroads, advancing or extending the green time for buses is permitted only every other cycle.  Bus signal preemption along South Miami-Dade Busway was removed because of a small increase in accidents. The Brazilian cities of Porto Alegre and Sao Paolo have automated bus platoon dispatching systems that are used to increase bus and passenger throughput.

The specific service patterns reflect the types of running ways and vehicles utilized. Most systems provide express or limited stop services overlaid an all-stop (or local) service that operates like an LRT line. Some also have feeder bus lines that serve selected stations.

Busways – either along separate rights-of-way or within street medians – can have basic “all stop” service with an overlay of express operations during peak periods. In a few cases, such as Cleveland and Curitiba, the express service is or will be provided along nearby parallel streets. BRT operations in mixed traffic – as in Honolulu, Los Angeles and Vancouver provide limited stop service. Local bus service is also operated along the streets, as part of the normal transit service. Rouen’s BRT system also provides limited stop service along arterial streets.

The bus tunnels in Boston and Seattle are located in downtown areas.  All buses make all stops in the tunnels.

The BRT system in Leeds provides all-stop service while Quito’s Trolebus service also stops at all stations. In Leeds the all-stop patterns are necessary because of curb-based mechanical guidance systems and the trolley-supplied power system, both of which make passing around stopped vehicles difficult or impossible.

Buses using median expressway lanes in Charlotte and Houston’s HOV lanes also operate, for the most part, in an express mode with no intermediate stops. However, in Houston there are a number of routes that exit the HOV lanes on dedicated bus ramps, enter transit centers or park-and-ride lots to drop off or pick up passengers, and then re-enter the HOV lanes.

In most systems the BRT service extends beyond the limits of busways or bus lanes. This flexibility is an important advantage of BRT as compared to rail transit. However, three BRT systems in South America operate only within the limits of the special running way, mainly due to door arrangements, station platform heights, and/or propulsion systems. These systems, including Bogotá’s TransMilenio, Curitiba’s median bus service, and Quito’s Trolebus actually function as though they were rail rapid transit lines.

Author: Ian McNamara